Starting today, Linspire does not only offer a free OS, but also its CNR Basic service. " Linspire, Inc., developer of the commercial desktop Linux operating system of the same name and Freespire, the free community desktop Linux operating system, announced the immediate change in pricing for its popular CNR Service from an annual subscription fee based offering to a completely free service." CEO Carmony said: "We're thrilled to now be in a position to offer this excellent service to desktop Linux users absolutely free. CNR really makes using desktop Linux easy, and we want everyone to have access to this quality service."

I think that this move is about the only step that Linspire needed to take in order for me to really appreciate CNR. I realize that there are a lot of other ways for people to install software for free with a GUI interface (because I generally run other distros that don't have CNR), but Linspire is the only distro that I've seen which has given its users the option of purchasing and installing commercial software through the same interface that they get the free software through.

As an example: I have purchased and installed StarOffice on various Linux systems with mixed results. Most of the time it works very well, but sometimes it just gets borked because it wasn't made to be installed by the package management system. CNR pretty much guarantees that I wouldn't have that problem.

For those who have Linspire, I do have a question about installing commercial software when you already have a valid license. I know that Linspire keeps track of CNR purchases and installation history to help people if they ever need to change their system. Is there a way for a person to verify a valid license with the CNR system so that they can use CNR to install commercial software without needing to purchase an additional license?